'I HAVE TO PINCH MYSELF EVERY DAY'

Emmerdale's Jessie Elland on being told off by fans, her character Chloe's love triangle with Mack and Charity and bonding with her little co-star

- OLIVIA WHEELER AND KATIE ARCHER

It’s the greatest compliment any soap star can get when viewers confuse them with their character, so Emmerdale actress Jessie Elland didn’t mind at all when fans kept telling her off for drinking during her ‘pregnancy’.

“If I had a pound for every time I’ve been on a night out and someone has said, ‘Hang on, you shouldn’t be drinking, aren’t you pregnant?’” laughs the actress who plays new mum Chloe Harris.

But Jessie knows how lucky she is that the devoted fans of the ITV1 soap have accepted her so readily.

Chloe had a secret fling with Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) while he was engaged to Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins), and is sitting on the bombshell that her new baby Reuben is Mack’s son.

Talking about the fan reaction, she says, “It’s been lovely, the great thing about this love triangle dynamic is that there’s such a grey area, there’s no ‘he’s definitely in the wrong’ or ‘she’s definitely in the wrong’.

“Everyone has a lot of different opinions about how they want Charity to find out. It’s interesting hearing them.”

Charity isn’t someone anyone in Emmerdale would want to cross, but Jessie says actress Emma Atkins is much more welcoming than her feisty alter ego.

Asked how she feels about the possibility of Charity finding out that Mack is Reuben’s dad, she admits, “Emma is really lovely, so I’d be excited to work with Emma and scared for Chloe!”